David Physical Abuse

A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer, is an autobiography about a boy, David, who is essentially beaten, tortured, starved and humiliated by his mother, Catherine, for a period of about eight years. After explaining the violence David is put through in the beginning of the book, we discover that there is a different side to Catherine years before David was ever abused. Before the abuse began, Catherine had a strong love for her children; for example, she would take them on trips, make special meals for them and more, which made David and his brothers feel safe around their mother. Catherine enjoyed being around her children, especially around Christmas time because they would annually cut down a Christmas tree, decorate it for hours, look at different

Physical abuse is defined to be the use of physical force that has the ability to result in bodily injury, physical pain or impairment. Physical abuse may result in acts such as hitting, beating, pushing, slapping and more. Throughout David’s life, he experiences different forms of physical abuse from his mother every single day. Catherine is considered to be an alcoholic, depressed and anxious mother, which makes David’s chances of getting physically abused higher. “Mothers who are depressed and/or anxious or sociopathic are at a higher risk for physically maltreating their children. Parents who abuse alcohol or drugs are also at greater risk for maltreating their children” (Hines, Malley-Morrison & Dutton, 2013, pp. 41-42). Every time Catherine would get ready and dress nice for the day, David would consider it a good day. But, if Catherine didn’t get ready or started drinking alcohol then it was going to be a bad day for David. One instance of physical abuse that occurred in the book was when Catherine made David go looking for a “lost” item in the house, searching for hours David forgot what item he was looking for and resorted to telling his mother. Once telling his mother, she reacted in a horrible way and punched David straight in the face without having to remove her eyes from the television. Another instance where the physical abuse

92). Today, there are several forms of neglect that a child can go through, but David mostly suffers physical neglect. According to the textbook, Family Violence in the United States, physical neglect, the most obvious and well-known form of neglect, occurs when parents fail to provide for the basic physical needs of their child, such as feeding, bathing, and providing shelter, or when they fail to protect the child from harm and danger” (Hines et al., 2013, p. 92). Physical neglect was experienced in the book a majority of the time, especially Catherine failing to provide food for David. The only food David would ever receive was minimal leftovers from his brothers, but he would only be able to eat them if he finished his chores. Some nights, David wouldn’t get any food at all and would go to bed hungry because his mom didn’t think he deserved a meal to eat. This situation got worse when coming home from school every day. Once being picked up from school, Catherine would make David throw up in the toilet because she didn’t want him eating at school and sneaking food behind her back. Another aspect of physical neglect that David experienced in the book was David’s father failing to protect him from harm and danger caused by his